Tag: knockouts

On Saturday night at XFS Tidal Wave in Valley Center, California, strawweight prospect Christine Stanley scored the greatest knockout we’ve seen all year, and arguably the most impressive knockout in women’s MMA history. Basically, what Stanley did to opponent Katie Anita Runyan was like Uriah Hall vs. Adam Cella, but in mid-air, and with the very first strike she threw.

Stanley’s jumping spinning hook-kick KO was officially recorded at five seconds, though it seemed closer to four by our count. At any rate, it’s amazing, and you should watch it immediately. Special appearance by The Great One!

(Props: XFC MMA via the UG. Check out an alternate angle of the KO here.)

Last weekend was a veritable potpourri of violence for the rabid anti-UFC MMA fan (a.k.a the CagePotato reader), with the WSOF, Bellator, and several local Brazilian promotions all churning out entertaining cards packed with memorable finishes. Perhaps the greatest KO of the bunch, however, was the Anderson Silva-esque front-kick scored by Bellator veteran Luis “Sapo” Santos over Alfredo Morales at XFCI 3. The way the sweat flies off Morales’ face, coupled with the picture-perfect way he folds like a lawn chair on his way down…it’s what puts the “arts” in “mixed martial arts.” It’s visual poetry, really…(*sniffs wine glass of own farts*)

But the “Sapo” KO — which marked his *sixtieth* win as a professional — was just one of many brilliant knockouts to transpire over the weekend, so join us after the jump for a look at the most recent entry in Josh Burkman’s WSOF highlight reel, as well as a sick spinning backwrist from the worst-named card of the year.

Why do I cringe? Because I fear what the future holds for both of these men. Mir is coming off of three losses, including two by violent TKOs. Overeem is in a similar boat, having been put to sleep in his last two fights. When you look further back, even more red flags can be found. Out of the eight losses that appear on Frank Mir’s MMA record, seven have been by some form of knockout. It gets even worse for Alistair, who has lost by KO or TKO 11 times between his MMA and kickboxing careers.

Based on what we now know about head trauma in MMA, it’s safe to assume that both fighters have suffered at least some level of brain injury, which means they could be in for an incredibly wide array of consequences. Depending on the area of trauma and severity, either fighter could suffer cognitive, physiological, emotional, psychological, and behavioral changes. Basic physical functions like hand-eye coordination can also be affected, making those devastating strikes even harder to avoid. And the damage does not end there.

So there’s this featherweight from Santa Catarina named Julio Cesar Neves, and he’s an absolute monster. In less than two years of professional competition, Neves has racked up a record of 26-0 (!), with 24 of those wins by stoppage. On Saturday, he picked up his 13th win of the year (!!), and we have a feeling this one will get him noticed by the big leagues.

The fight you see above went down at Watch Out Combat Show 28, where Neves faced Dener Dos Santos. Less than two minutes into the first round, Neves fires a capoeira-style cartwheel kick that immediately sends Dos Santos into falling-tree mode. Your move, Lelo.

And now, in the women’s division, we have a knockout that’s less flashy, more smashy…

(Props: TheMrsCountryman. Fight starts at the 2:23 mark, knockout happens at 4:16. And yeah, the audio doesn’t work in this clip, so feel free to hum a tune of your choice.)

Ten months before making his UFC debut at the TUF 2 Finale in November 2005, Melvin Guillard decided to take a pro boxing bout in Las Vegas against a Detroit-based fighter named James Countryman. The fight did not go well for Melvin.

About a minute and a half into the match, Countryman lands a big overhand right that levels Guillard. The Young Assassin springs to his feet and nods his head a couple times to signify that yes, he got smacked with a good one, then goes right back into the fight. Seconds later, Guillard catches a left hook from Countryman flush on the jaw and falls backwards into the ropes, unconscious. Game. Over.

Guillard would go onto a successful career in the UFC, but has never boxed professionally again. Countryman boxed for four more years, compiling a 14-1 record through March 2009. Interestingly enough, Countryman’s final boxing match was a decision win against none other than Karl “KJ” Noons, the current UFC lightweight and former EliteXC champion. Noons fought three more boxing matches that year, winning all three of them, and put together an 11-2 boxing record overall before devoting himself to MMA full time — which maybe wasn’t the greatest choice, in retrospect.

And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for — the public execution of our least favorite TUF 17 castmember. In case you missed last night’s episode of the show, Bubba McDaniel did everything he could to get out of the match. It had already been apparent that Bubba wasn’t mentally prepared to face Uriah Hall, and he also began complaining of exhaustion and pain in his back. Sadly, the doctor cleared Bubba to compete, and he became a quick meal for the show’s front-runner.

The nine-second knockout had onlookers speaking of Hall in lofty terms. “This guy is the nastiest guy in Ultimate Fighter history,” said UFC president Dana White. Chael Sonnen even called him a contender for the middleweight title. Hmm. That might be the case, but when Hall officially makes it to the UFC, he’ll eventually have to face guys who aren’t terrified of being in the cage with him.

Uriah will compete again in next week’s semifinals episode, where he’ll face Dylan Andrews, who TKO’d Luke Barnatt last week. On the other side of the bracket, 21-year-old prodigy Kelvin Gastelum will go heads-up against Josh Samman, who finished Jimmy Quinlan in last night’s episode. You can check out highlights from that scrap after the jump.

Regardless of how you feel about Casey “Glorious Ball Tickler of Absolute Douchiness” Oxendine, it’s hard to deny that he and co-host Cyrus Fees are doing a fantastic job bringing mainstream audiences the best in small promotion fight news over at MMA: Inside the Cage. Specifically, bringing us knockout videos from local promotions spanning across damn near every continent on this planet (for some reason, Antarctica’s Igloo Fighting Championship has yet to truly take off). While these knockouts are often sporadically placed throughout each episode, every now and again we are treated to an entire episode devoted to the knockout videos fans of the show have sent in from around the world.

So to honor Inside the Cage’s third collection of 100 epic knockouts, we’ve thrown the full video of episode #132 above for you to enjoy. Featuring more falling tree, lawn chair, and King slow-Mo knockouts than you can shake a stick at, episode #132 is destined to reside in the bowels of MMA culture until at least Wednesday, so check it out and let us know which knockout you think took the cake.

The fight, which went down Saturday night at the Buffalo Run Casino in Miami, Oklahoma — which was also the site of Slice’s previous boxing wins over James Wade and Charles Hackmann — was essentially decided by just two punches. First, Kimbo lands a sharp left hook to the gut that forces Jones to take a knee. Shortly after, Kimbo lands an uppercut that convinces Jones to play dead until the ref finishes his ten-count.

Seven years. Fifteen seasons. The Ultimate Fighter has been a part of our lives for nearly a decade, ladies and gentlemen, and not only is it still going strong, but it has spread at the rate of your average zombie apocalypse. With the first international installment of the hit reality show already under way, TUF has seemingly evolved beyond its counterparts, transcending even that of the sport in it’s ability to excite, and often inspire its audience. Sure, the next season of Jersey Shore will feature a piss drunk pregnant woman and a possible probable cokehead and will therefore rule the ratings from here to eternity, but The Ultimate Fighter has something better to bring to the table than fabricated drama. Mainly, sweet ass knockouts.

With these knockouts, we’ve seen underdogs pull off upsets, loudmouths get their comeuppance, and the emergence of future superstars. So in honor of what has already been a KO-ridden season of TUF, we decided to watch every season back to back, and determine the BEST knockout from its respective season. Enjoy.

There’s nothing we love more than unregulated MMA shows held in parking lots. This lost classic comes from a "Rumble at the River" event that went down somewhere in Minnesota in August 2007. We don’t know who the competitors are; we just know that one is a welterweight and the other is a bantamweight with a peace-sign tattoo on his arm and shaky striking defense. (Try to guess which one is snoozing on the mat nine seconds after the fight starts.) By the way, it took the paramedic so long to get over to the downed fighter because she had to change out of her ring girl uniform first.

After the jump:Quinton "Rampage" Jackson makes an appearance in a slick new Nike commercial that will be running this evening during the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics. Okay, so maybe his scene has an unfortunate pro-wrestling vibe to it. (What exactly was his opponent doing when Quinton was stretched out on the canvas? Blowing kisses from the turnbuckle?) But goddamnit if ‘Page didn’t get up and deliver the death-blow to that generically tattooed cage-fighter. Cheesy or not, you gotta be psyched to see something like this in a high-profile mainstream ad…